New Font was Designed To Boost Your Memory — According To Science

Psychologists and design researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia designed a new font style called “Sans Forgetica” using the principles of cognitive psychology. “It was designed to help lodge information deeper in human’s brain,” the researchers say. The researchers added, “It is based on a psychological learning principle called ‘desirable difficulty'”, which further suggest that people remember things better when their brains have to overcome minor obstacles while processing information.

Sans Forgetica serves as a ‘simple puzzle’ for the readers, which is a sans serif style typeface, with two unusual features. the style is sleek and back-slanted which is a rarely used design principle in typography, with intermittent gaps in each letter, as per Stephen Banham, a designer and RMIT lecturer who helped create the font.

Those gaps in each letter have a purpose. They make Sans Forgetica harderto read, tricking your brain into using “deeper cognitive processing” and promoting better memory retention. The obstruction — the gaps — mean you dwell on each word just a little bit longer.

To find the best font for boosting memory, the team carry out trials on 400 students in the lab and online experiment and conclude that “Sans Forgetica broke just enough design principles without becoming too illegible and aided memory retention” As per the news, release on the university’s website.

As a test, the team distracted students for 15 minutes after they read about the animals, then quizzed them; the students remembered 87 percent of the pangerish facts, whose information had been tougher to read, and 73 percent of the norgletti facts.

Sans Forgetica is the first font created with retention in mind, the researchers at RMIT said. But Janneke Blijlevens, another researcher on the project, stressed that the font should be used sparingly for it to stay effective.

“We believe it is best used to emphasize key sections, like a definition, in texts rather than converting entire texts or books,” Blijlevens told The Washington Post.